I was working at a dotcom in 2000, and a 6 month acquaintance of mine--a sweet little bald woman with huge tattoos on her skull--said "let's go to Burning Man!" & I said "Burning what, now?" She was a newbie too, but described it as best she could based on her friends' experiences, and I was intrigued.

I hadn't been camping since childhood at that point, and didn't own a single piece of camping equipment . . . but with two months to go, in a move I shall never fully understand, I decided to risk it. I borrowed a friend's $40 dome tent, packed in an oddly thorough fashion considering I would not know about ePlaya for another 8 years, and took off on a road-trip with this woman and 18 strangers. I was so stressed out about traveling with people I didn't know that my face leaked all the way to the drop-off point. I was so shy then. It's all very strange to me now.

I will never forget the homesick, loving look on the face of one of my fellow travelers on the way into the city for the first time. He was leaning his head against the wall of the RV and gazing out the window and I was staring at him in turn, thinking "what on earth has gotten into him?" By the end of the week, I understood. It was amazing to run into him this year and thank him for his hospitality that first year. I'd seen him a couple of times since then but I think this was the first time I expressed proper thanks.

I missed a few years in the middle of the last decade, but have now attended 6 Burns.

My best recollection places me at about 12 years old, so circa '97. I was watching something on the discovery channel (or channel like that) that was showing this amazing place in the middle of a desert! People in fantastic costumes, and fire, and huge smiles.

I had this overwhelming feeling of "I HAVE to be there!". BUT being so young, it wasn't as if i had any chance of going. It was forgotten shortly after that.

Fast forward to 2007, it's somewhere near the middle of April I'm at a party and i see someone light up and spin a fire staff. I had this weird feeling of "I HAVE to do that!" we got talking about fire staff and such and they brought up burning man.

I stopped dead in my tracks as my brain was FLOODED with past memories of this place as i thought "I remember burning man!!" they told me they had an extra ticket they wanted to sell but i felt as though i wouldn't have enough time to prep for my journey, and i had already waited so long, what's another year?

Set my mind on BM '08. Practiced staff and met local burners/spinners and by the time BM '08 rolled around, i was a decent spinner and entirely ready for my first burn.

Winter 2008/2009 - dont remember if it was December or January...I was searching some picture for my school paper and google showed me picture of the statue from chains. Lady with hands up like praying or crying. It was interesting and what more, it was placed in desert. Never seen anything like that. There was written burningman, so I googled it and since that time I was lost for that.
Few weeks after that I found my friend on Facebook - after 10 years or so...and found similar pictures in her profile. She was just about going to visit Prague, so we met...it was so much fun. She was talking about BM and I was fascinated. I decided I have to go...couldnt make it in summer...but BM became my dream. Around Christmas 2009 I started to think about that again...in February logged to eplaya first time...became totally obsessed...spent many hours searching and reading...starting to post stupid jokes on eplaya, met many great people online who helped me to prepare...in August came to my first BURN...

i think it was 1993 or so ... i read about burning man in the "happy mutant handbook", and immediately wanted to go ... but i am not a camper, and wasn't anywhere near a burner crowd, and didn't even know how to find one, so i forgot about it, although it stuck in my head and stewed for many, many years. then i found the website, and figured out how to survive a week in the desert, and met some wacko eplayans ,,,, yay!

Fire_Moose wrote:My best recollection places me at about 12 years old, so circa '97. I was watching something on the discovery channel (or channel like that) that was showing this amazing place in the middle of a desert! People in fantastic costumes, and fire, and huge smiles.

Sometime in mid or late 90s. We were still living in Pennsylvania. I came home from work around 4:00am and turned on the TV. Was channel surfing and stopped on the E! channel. They had a show about the best "parties." Burning Man was the last to be featured.
We moved to Nevada in 2000 and I forgot all about BM until 01 when I started seeing all these weird vehicles being driven, towed, hauled etc on 395 and I80 and I'm thinking, WTF is this?
Wife and I went in 02. That was her only time to go.

My cats are cuter than your grandkids!

"Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem." Ronald Reagan

End of summer 2007... at the time I worked in a fine dinning restaurant and had a fellow co-worker who was from Russia.

He was really an amazing free-spirited guy. I will never forget him coming to work Sunday the day right after the burn I assume...He looked like hell. Here we are at a fine dinning resturant surving "wealthy stars".... and he looked like he had been living out in the wilderness for a week.
His eye were blood shot red, he looked like a lumber jack and as if he had not had a good nights sleep for days.

I asked him what the heck had happened to him.

All he said in his thick Russian accent was, 'Cass it was one hell of a week and one day I hope you get to experience it'.

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves" - Henry David Thoreau

I know now with the internet in everyones pocket things get spread around pretty quickly but surely not everyone learned about the the burn from facebook posts and snarky articles from news sites. So I ask what brought it to your attention and made you decide to check out your first burning man?

My sister had a coworker (teacher) that she said always went to a "family reunion" out in the desert (burning man). I had heard about it before and it sounded like something I'd really enjoy but never got around to it. Finally I went to Coachella one year and saw the serpent mother and another crazy art piece that was a giant robotic hand that could pick up wrecked cars and crush them. Sealed the deal. I bought a ticket as soon as I got home.

it was some time in 1986, the summer I think, and I remember walking along a beach in San Francisco and seeing this guy with a stick figure made out of driftwood. He was trying to light it on fire, but the breeze kept blowing out his lighter. I stopped to help him shield his lighter with his hat, a light gray Stetson, if I remember correctly. Eventually we got it lit Some people gathered around and turned it into a real event. I suggested that he ought to build another stick figure and burn it again the same time the following year. This chain-smoking dude said he had no intention of doing it again, that he had done only to commemorate the end of a romantic relationship. I thought it was really kind of cool the way it built an impromptu sense of community and I finally talked him into promising to do it again. I flew back home a few days later and never thought about it again until I saw this same man being interviewed on TV some 15 years later.

I read about it in a magazine-- it MIGHT have been Wired, but I don't recall it being a cover story. It had to have been 1996 or earlier, since it was still an "outlaw" gathering and the location on the playa a pseudo-secret. I got reminded again around 2002 when a friend of mine came across plans for a geodesic dome made out of PVC pipe and an old parachute on the Internet and sent me the link with a comment that he thought it would be fun to build one. I followed the link and found out that the dome was supposed to be a shade structure for Burning Man and told him I thought it would be fun to go. I didn't make it until 2006, and he still hasn't gone. Oh, and we never built the darned dome. (I just used a tent, and managed to accidentally park my car just right to be a wind-break for the tent.)

"Nothing is withheld from us which we have conceived to do.Do things that have never been done."--Russell Kirsch

My friends brothers friends used to go every year, he started telling me about it, it sounded like a wondrous place and really struck a chord. We were living in vancouver at the time so near the end of august we got a bus to san fran.

We didnt have much money so we werent sure, the camp that was goign were staying in the same house as us and they were planning all around and telling us storiesso eventually we made the decision to go. Sent â‚¬1000 dollars to this woman we found on craigslist in chicago for 5 tickets. Once we transferred the money she stopped answering our calls we slowly began to realise we got screwed...

We were in Tahoe at this stage so we decided to carry on and head to the desert. There was a real sense of purpose around the trip, none of us really knew how but we knew it was going to work out. Our camp had already gone up with our food and water so we were able to travel light and it was just a matter of getting in.

We hitch hiked from Reno to the playa and went to the will call line. We explained what had happened to us and they gave us two free tickets and then 3 other ones fairly cheaply so we were able to afford them. Woo Hoo!!

After becoming obsessed with BM over the last few months it finally popped back into my head where I first heard about it. There was an article inRolling Stone about it, it had to be 1991 I think as my mother subscribed till around then and I left home in 92. I don't remember much from the article except the mud people (back when I guess making a mud pit on the playa and rolling around in it to keep cool was still ok). That article was a seed in my brain as I've been aware of BM ever since and always remembered it as something I wanted to do, even without really knowing what it was all about (as much as I can know at this point having still not been there.)

In the recent months, as I've been glued to ePlaya, reading articles, watching videos, started up my facebook group for local burners interested in planning over the coming year and going in '11 I just keep kicking myself for not keeping my finger on the pulse of this thing and going sooner. I feel like I've missed lifetimes of experience that are right up my alley.

I've always been attracted to the weird, the psychedelic, surreal and absurd. I've always been eclectic in music and art. I've always been fascinated by counter culture, the DIY/punk ethic, revolutionary art, etc. I cannot wait to get there and I know I will probably weep at some point. Last week I noticed I have started to get a lump in my throat when watching videos or reading articles of fond memories. I think I get a little choked up at the whole thing and I'm not sure why. I guess I miss being connected to an underground community dedicated to celebrating their creative spirit and collective freedom. I think when I leave the playa I will be at once energized to make '12 even better and also deeply saddened that it can only be one week out of a year. Guess I better plan to plug into the local scene more, wherever local happens to be for me by then.

Before computers burning man was (I think) mostly word of mouth and posters...artsy crowd, mostly from SF Bay area. They used to drive very interesting vehicles through to the burn...some of the best graffiti I've ever seen...I'm also from NYC, I know my graffiti and I miss seeing the painted circus drive through town like it used to...now it's a parade of non-descript vehicles....

If you live in the region of the burn, you're a "backyard burner" it probably landed in thine lap. I'm not knocking this occurance...just really good fortune.

I am blessed with the fact that many circles of circles of freinds,
both backyard and far and wide are burners...I imagine many of them discovered it through an art background....I am not an accidental backyard burner but I am a backyard burner and would probably have discovered it from a distance through art, if that makes sense...then came the computer era and well...the rest is history in the making!

Technology, science, etc etc etc brought every type of burner from every interesting background...some like it, some don't...I find it fascinating and roll with the times...

I'm the MAN in a truck, burner who is stuck, you're in luck! I'll whip out my BIG tow chain and not charge you, not even one lousy buck!

One of my friends older siblings would go, then in the late 90's I saw that E! special and knew I had to go. Although it took me damn near forever to get here. (2008)
I had some great people help me that year. I still kick myself in the ass for not coming sooner!!

Savannah wrote:I was working at a dotcom in 2000, and a 6 month acquaintance of mine--a sweet little bald woman with huge tattoos on her skull--said "let's go to Burning Man!" & I said "Burning what, now?" She was a newbie too, but described it as best she could based on her friends' experiences, and I was intrigued.

I hadn't been camping since childhood at that point, and didn't own a single piece of camping equipment . . . but with two months to go, in a move I shall never fully understand, I decided to risk it. I borrowed a friend's $40 dome tent, packed in an oddly thorough fashion considering I would not know about ePlaya for another 8 years, and took off on a road-trip with this woman and 18 strangers. I was so stressed out about traveling with people I didn't know that my face leaked all the way to the drop-off point. I was so shy then. It's all very strange to me now. I will never forget the homesick, loving look on the face of one of my fellow travelers on the way into the city for the first time. He was leaning his head against the wall of the RV and gazing out the window and I was staring at him in turn, thinking "what on earth has gotten into him?" By the end of the week, I understood. It was amazing to run into him this year and thank him for his hospitality that first year. I'd seen him a couple of times since then but I think this was the first time I expressed proper thanks.

I missed a few years in the middle of the last decade, but have now attended 6 Burns.

That's a nice story Savannah

I'm the MAN in a truck, burner who is stuck, you're in luck! I'll whip out my BIG tow chain and not charge you, not even one lousy buck!

I first heard about it one night back in the 1990's (can't remember the year) but wasn't really paying attention as I was busy with someone else anyway and just figured it was some militant feminist gathering.